Stories

As we reach the halfway point for the 2025-26 Rotary year, we want to check in on our progress with regards to membership growth and celebrate clubs that are growing so far.

Overall, we are +2% through November, which means we are up 43 new members.

The Cato Rotary Club has led a community effort to honor the area's earliest settlers with a new commemorative marker in Dutton Cemetery. Between 1806 and 1864, about 225 settlers were buried there, but their headstones were removed and desecrated decades ago.

Rotary International is now accepting nominations for the 2025–26 People of Action Honors: Champions of Tomorrow — an opportunity to recognize inspiring young leaders who are already making a meaningful difference in their communities.

Members from across CNY gathered at the Rosamond Gifford Zoo on Saturday, August 16th to reflect on our accomplishments in our first year as this new region and celebrate the inauguration of new leaders for 2025-26. The event also honored retiring representatives and other outgoing leaders whose service helped shape and bring to life our new vision for Rotary in this part of the world. Read on for stats worth celebrating, milestones reached, and leaders to know!

A few years ago, District 7170 joined forces with the Rotary Club of Sacramento on a global grant to bring clean water to communities in Honduras. That collaboration not only made a meaningful impact but also opened the door to ongoing connections with global partners working on a wide range of humanitarian efforts.

Recently, one such opportunity came to our attention: a compelling initiative called Project Dignity, which focuses on the fight against modern-day slavery and human trafficking in Vietnam. This two-year global grant is being coordinated in partnership with World Vision, and the CNY Rotary Global Grants Committee is now considering how our district might join this effort.

Many district leaders start in this program and many lifelong friendships do too!

You can read more about the summit here and get the details on what is involved with attending the Future Leaders program below.

The Rotary Club of Utica’s third annual ’Service Above Self’ Gala, held in June, raised $12,432.76.

Foundation Celebration featuring Jennifer Jones and District Foundation Awards

• Nationally-known Keynotes and Featured Speakers
• Virtual breakout rooms
• Roundtable discussions with community leaders
• Live-streamed webinars
• Live-streamed Trivia with Prizes
• And so much more!

ITHACA ROTARY ANNOUNCES JUNE PROGRAM SPEAKERS

Weekly luncheon programs are open to the public

     Let me offer you a simile - Rotary International is like a car. Our 1.2 million members are the myriad parts, and our Five Avenues of Service are the major systems. When all of us are actively involved and our clubs are providing service in all five areas, the Rotary car runs incredibly smoothly and covers an amazing amount of ground. It is highly efficient and highly effective. But what if the car is missing a wheel or a tire is flat?

Looking for something magical to do this Halloween Weekend?

Volunteer for Wizarding Weekend 2017!

Are you interested in planting trees this Rotary year, but don’t know where to begin? Here are some tips adapted from ‘tree planting expert’ Bob Aagre of the Nimmonsburg Rotary Club. That club has planted over 250 trees already!Are you interested in planting trees this Rotary year, but don’t know where to begin? Here are some tips adapted from ‘tree planting expert’ Bob Aagre of the Nimmonsburg Rotary Club. That club has planted over 250 trees already!

For more than 110 years, Rotary members have been addressing challenges around the world and acting as ambassadors for peace. In today’s global climate, our youth are anxious. Anxious about international relations, terrorism, America's position in the world, their personal future, and how they fit in. The Peace Summit for Youth will provide a forum to express their concerns and work collaboratively to consider pathways to peace – peace in their schools, on their streets, and in the world.

In our July newsletter, I mentioned our District's foundation giving goals for 2017-18 - $250,000 for the Annual Fund - SHARE and $50,000 for PolioPlus.

Here's an update on where we stand right now, as well as some more info on Corporate Fundraising - how we can encourage local and national employers to give to the Rotary Foundation.

What is Rotary?

When asked, “What is Rotary?” many individuals will say that it is a group of older men that meet for lunch weekly or an organization that brings in exchange students.   I have even heard someone say, it is a “roundabout!”  So what is it anyway?  Rotary is a volunteer, international, non-sectarian, service organization comprised of 1,200,000 members within 200 countries of the world.  Its power lies in its ability to bring leaders and technical experts who share a mutual mission to improve health, support education and alleviate poverty.  Working as partners it achieves lasting change through the combination of local oversight and the resources of an international organization. 

Interact and Microfinance - A Perfect Combination

 By Marty and Martha Winsor, Co-Advisors

of the Edmeston Central School Interact Club

     Shortly after it was formed in 2007, the Edmeston Central School Interact Club received a gift of $250.00 from the Otsego County Sheriff's Deputies' Benevolent Association. After researching options for the best use of the funds, our club members settled on the making of micro-finance loans through kiva.org.

Did you know that one excellent way to recruit new Rotarians is to hold an Open House or Membership Mixer?

Here are some tips and a link to an invitation letter that you can customize for your club.

DG Zoë and Membership Chair Matt are enthusiastically promoting Open Houses in the District, and would like to help your club hold one. Contact us to get yours scheduled today!

Find up-to-date contact information for every member in our District online. You must have an active login (ask your Club Secretary if you need that.)

Now that I have it – if a member of your club attended one of the grant management seminars - there are 22 of you –

And the club had a per capita giving of $50 – check that out with our District Foundation Chair – Jean Cadwallader – jeankc@twcny.rr.com or Lana Rouff, our Grants Chair at LanaRouff@gmail.com

The District Grants Committee will be accepting applications for District Community Grants until September 1^st.  Because we have done an outstanding job in funding raising three years ago, we are able to give a couple more grants than were accepted this spring.  So, look into the needs of your community and fill out the application that is found on our district website Rotarydistrict7170.org on the right side!    Up to $2500 is available per grant.  Send the applications to LanaRouff@gmail.com.  The committee would like to see a humanitarian project!! 

Questions: -

Call Lana at 797-7727!!  Rotary is Service Above Self!!

Get Your Motor Running

Ithaca’s 4^th annual

Rotary ROAD Rally!                                                                                                                                             

Sunday, July 23, 2017

Registration 1:00 – 2:00 pm

Ithaca College Smiddy Hall / CHS

$20 per adult    $10 children 12 – 18    free 11 & younger

Dear Rotary, 

“Look again at that dot. That’s here. That’s home. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines…” 

So begin of what are some of the most memorable lines from Carl Sagan’s book The Pale Blue Dot. I left the Ithaca in 2015 to make my home for the next two years across the Atlantic in London. Ah, and what a journey it has been to inhabit a different part of the hemisphere, a different perspective, a different way of living being exposed to “thousands of religions, ideologies, economic doctrines.” I begin this letter with thanking my Rotary district in upstate New York, the community of people who gave me the opportunity to go on this journey. I especially want to thank Lana Rouff, Nancy Potter, George Gull, and Richard Kiely – you are very special to me and you have inspired me.

A few weeks ago I took my last exam in public economics, and so it happened it was a day full of sunshine, which in the month of May could be considered a rather unexpected event in London. It was nice to finish the program on such a bright note. Often when an experience comes to an end the word most commonly used is “bittersweet,” but I felt more excited, happy and thankful. I do not feel like I am saying goodbye to the university, the community of people, my Rotary family who have made the last two years special, but I feel that this last two years have given me the tools, the spontaneous moments of inspiration, and experience to face what is to come next and to do so together. So what is next? 

Currently I am in London working at an organization where I am putting to practice the skills I built in the program for the past two years. Specifically, I am using econometric techniques to evaluate the impact of social programs, such as educational initiatives. It is exciting work to me, because I am able to work with data to perform analysis and contribute to more evidence-based policies.  

When I became a Rotary scholar, it was a privilege for me to join such a community and I was determined to share in some form the investment Rotary made in me to pursue my graduate studies. Since moving to the UK in 2015, the UK has transformed substantially – Brexit and the recent elections are a few of the dramatic changes. What I learned during this time is that the political discourse was alienating people due to the use of economic arguments and expert jargon that was not understood by many. What I also learned while studying at the LSE was a new growing movement of people questioning the field of economics, its assumptions, and furthermore, the way it is being taught. This is the issue I plan to address by creating a project aimed to bring economics to the public sphere, and do so in an accessible, spontaneous, exciting and new approach. I plan to use the public spaces of London to organize “pop-up” economic debates, or “guerrilla style” lectures, where the location, the speakers, the topic is secret until the day of the event. The location will serve as the theme to introduce economic concepts and open the floor for lively debates. For example, meeting in Borough Market, the largest and oldest food market in the world, people will be introduced to concepts of supply and demand, the Hotelling model of clustering, among other concepts. Through an immersive experience they will question, debate and engage in discussions. The hope is that people will realize that economics is not a discipline locked away in an ivory tower for experts, but it is everywhere, London is a city built on economics, and economics is about understanding how life works. By doing so, I hope people will feel empowered to engage in the political debates and hold politicians accountable next time arguments are made in the name of “economic growth.”  

In a few weeks time the Graduation Ceremony will take place and I will be able to see classmates once again before we all go to the different corners of the world. Before graduation I will have the chance to see my Rotary family here where all the scholars and host clubs will meet for a day together. I also hope to be able to visit my Rotary district back at home in upstate New York sometime soon in the future to share in person about the last two years. 

Carl Sagan finishes the quote by stating, “It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known.”

I think beyond the economics, econometrics, policy analysis tools that I have learned, far more profound has been the character-building experience that has cemented in me the simple idea that be an aspiring policymaker, an entrepreneur, an employee, a neighbor, a citizen, to deal more kindly with one another… 

Kind regards, 
Lusiné Mehrabyan